CARRIAGES.
Of carriages, those with two wheels are the cheapest, lightest, and most expeditious; but, however sure-footed the horse, and however skilful the driver, they are comparatively dangerous vehicles.
As to gentlemen’s carriages, in this country, it has justly been observed, that the view at Hyde Park Corner, on any fine afternoon, in the height of the London season, is enough to confound any foreigner, from whatever part of the world he may come. He may there see what no other country can show him. Let him only sit on the rail, near the statue, and in the space of two hours he will see a thousand well-appointed equipages pass before him to the Mall, in all the pomp of aristocratic pride, in which the horses themselves appear to partake. The stream of equipages of all kinds, barouches, chariots, cabriolets, &c., and almost all got up “regardless of expense,” flows on unbroken until it is half-past seven, and people at last begin to think of what they still call dinner. Seneca tells us that such a blaze of splendour was once to be seen on the Appian Way. It might be so—it is now to be seen nowhere but in London.
As to stage-coaches, their form seems to have arrived at perfection. It combines prodigious strength with almost incredible lightness; many of them not weighing more than about 18 cwt., and being kept so much nearer the ground than formerly, they are of course considerably safer. Nothing, indeed, can be more favourable to safety than the build of modern coaches. The boots being let down between the springs, keep the load, and consequently the centre of gravity, low; the wheels of many of them are secured by patent boxes; and in every part of them the best materials are used. The cost of coaches of this description is from £130 to £150; but they are generally hired from the maker at 2½d. to 3d. per mile.
It is said to be the intention of Government[74] to substitute light carriages with two horses for the present mail-coaches drawn by four. On this, a writer in the Quarterly Review observes, that when the mail-coach of the present day starts from London for Edinburgh, a man may safely bet a hundred to one that she arrives to her time; but let a light two-horse vehicle set out on the same errand, and the betting would strangely alter. It is quite a mistaken notion that a carriage is less liable to accidents for being light. On the contrary, she is more liable to them than one that is laden in proportion to her sustaining powders. In the latter case, she runs steadily along, and is but little disturbed by any obstacle or jerk she may meet on the road: in the former, she is constantly on “the jump,” as coachmen call it, and her iron parts are very liable to snap.
[74] The era of rail-roads has however now arrived, and there remains no need for such an experiment.—Ed. Fifth Edition.
It may in this place be observed, that no stage-coach should be permitted to travel the road with wheels secured only by the common linchpin. It is in consequence of this that innumerable accidents have happened to coaches from wheels coming off; and in these improving and fast times, such chances should not be allowed to exist. It may not be uninteresting to the uninitiated to learn from the same clever and experienced writer how a coach is worked. Suppose a number of persons to enter into a contract to horse a coach eighty miles, each proprietor having twenty miles; in which case he is said to cover both sides of the ground, or to and fro. At the expiration of twenty-eight days a settlement takes place, and if the gross earnings of the coach be £10 per mile, there will be £800 to divide between the four proprietors, after the following charges have been deducted, viz., tolls, duty to government, mileage (or hire of the coach to the coach-makers), two coachmen’s wages, porters’ wages, rent or charge of booking-offices at each end, and washing the coaches. These charges may amount to £150, which leaves £650 to keep eighty horses, and to pay the horse-keepers for a period of twenty-eight days, or nearly £160 to each proprietor for the expenses of his twenty horses, being £2 per week per horse. Thus it appears that a fast coach properly appointed cannot pay, unless its gross receipts amount to £10 per double mile; and that even then the proprietor’s profits depend on the luck he has with his stock.